Chapter 4

After storm-like hours had passed and Eveline returned to her room, once Julie had left and she was finally alone, her expression abruptly twisted. All this time she had suffered countless stifling things while pretending to be a fool, but never before had she wanted to scream as much as she did today.

But because her act had to continue, she could not reveal her feelings where others could see. She merely pounded an innocent pillow with her fist.

‘What? Marriage?’

Even after pounding the pillow several times, her anger did not subside.

‘That old man who only knows how to fill his own stomach!’

Eveline instantly understood why the King was trying to hand her over as Allen’s wife. It was painfully obvious that he feared that if Allen ever joined hands with one of the great noble houses, royal authority would be shaken, so he intended to send him a daughter he believed incapable of functioning properly as a person and put a leash on him that way.

Exhausted by her own rage, she stopped hitting the pillow and clutched her head.

‘I can’t leave the palace like this.’

At first, when she awoke after taking the poison, she had pretended to be a fool out of fear. Her mother had always worried that the Queen’s and Countess Miller’s blades would one day be turned toward Eveline and her. Eveline instinctively realized that the only way to protect herself was to slip entirely out of the succession struggle.

At first, the Queen and Countess Miller placed spies by her side. It would have been difficult to imagine that a child would pretend to be stupid just to survive, but the two of them were cautious for the sake of putting their own children on the throne. The spies sent by the two of them sometimes shouted threateningly at young Eveline, and at other times tried to coax her gently. They even showed the thoroughness to use a servant who claimed to have served her maternal grandfather.

But after her mother’s death, Eveline trusted no one but herself. In the end, she passed the tests of both of them, and after that they completely lost interest in her.

Once she had stepped out of danger in that way, what came to her was anger. All Eveline and her mother had wanted was a quiet life. She wanted to repay those who had mercilessly trampled that small wish exactly in kind. Since blood had to be repaid with blood, Eveline wanted to kill every member of the royal family. But she could trust no one, and all she had was her own body.

So she willingly decided to make use of herself. What she realized while acting the fool was that everyone saw an idiot as harmless. Eveline made use of that blind spot.

The people she had to deal with were wicked and ruthless like snakes. So she needed intelligence that could surpass them. Even though she had to keep acting the fool in order not to attract suspicion, she could not let go of learning.

But in a situation where she could not officially receive anyone’s instruction, she used the books in the royal library as her teachers and continued to educate herself.

She stacked several books open at a time, disguising it before others as if she were merely playing around, and secretly honed herself without anyone knowing. It was also from books that she found the means to kill the royal family. That means it was White Fragrance Herb. That plant, easily found whenever she went to the garden, became the tool of Eveline’s revenge.

No one ever even imagined that Eveline had been putting White Fragrance Herb into the royal family’s meals for a long time. Who would dare imagine that a foolish Princess who was even bullied by her young nieces and nephews was slowly killing the royal family?

For the sake of a successful revenge, whenever a maid assigned to her tried to take an interest in her, Eveline created situations that would make the maid leave the palace. In that way, the maid in charge of her had been changed several times.

If the White Fragrance Herb is consumed regularly, it generally leads to death within 15 years. This year marked the 10th year since Eveline had begun putting White Fragrance Herb into the royal family’s meals, so she only needed to endure 5 more years.

And yet, because of the King’s petty mind, the grand plan of her lifetime had been placed in danger of collapsing overnight.

‘Should I pretend it was an accident and inflict a serious wound on myself?’

Eveline was tempted, but soon shook her head. Even though the person he was meant to take as his wife was her, a woman famous as a fool, Allen had neither objected nor refused outright.

‘He looked as if he had no interest at all.’

She clicked her tongue as she recalled Allen’s expression. That dry, emotionless man seemed like the sort who would not care even if she had three eyes.

“What should I do?”

Deep in thought, Eveline could not fall asleep until late into the night.

Though she could not come up with any sharp solution, the wedding between Eveline and Allen proceeded smoothly. Not even a mere commoner would have a wedding carried out in such haste. The King hurried through the marriage as though roasting beans in a lightning flash.

The two of them held the wedding with only the royal family present as witnesses. Of course, there could be no wedding more glorious than one with the royal family as witnesses, but the problem was the manner in which it was done. All that happened was that under the Archbishop’s officiation, their consent to the marriage was confirmed.

There was no beautiful music, no shower of flower petals wishing them happiness, and no kiss of vows.

An indifferent groom as though it were someone else’s affair, a bride pushed aside from everyone’s interest, and guests making political calculations, every part of it was a misshapen wedding.

Eveline quietly studied Allen, who was surrounded by the royal family. Allen received their congratulations with an indifferent face.

‘Why did he accept this marriage?’

She knew how Allen’s family had died. The people working in the palace kept quiet because they were mindful of the Queen and Henry, but they did not watch their words in front of Eveline. Allen’s family had practically been killed by Henry.

As if he knew that fact himself, Henry, who had hidden from Allen even at the party, was still the only one among the royal family keeping his distance from Allen even now. Instead, the Queen stayed closely attached to Allen’s side, as though competing with Countess Miller.

To someone who did not know better, he would have looked like one of the guests rather than the main figure of the wedding, so indifferent was he even under the pouring stream of congratulations. It was as though he were looking down on everyone from a high place. In front of him, even the Queen and Countess Miller looked like mere clowns. And despite all their little performances, Allen remained equally indifferent to everyone.

‘What is he thinking?’

Eveline could not fathom why he had accepted a marriage he could have refused well enough. She was only one of the possible options. If he had refused, the King would have pushed forward another candidate. And that candidate, unlike the foolish Princess, would have been someone capable of properly acting as a wife.

As Eveline continued observing Allen, she saw that once, by chance, when his gaze touched Henry, a faint flicker of disgust passed through his usually emotionless eyes. It vanished in an instant, too quickly for anyone else to notice, but Eveline, who had been studying him all along out of curiosity about his true intentions, did not miss it.

‘They said he lost his whole family because of Henry, didn’t they?’

Eveline recalled the fact she had forgotten. Henry had not directly killed his family, but it could not be denied that he had provided the decisive cause.

For a very brief moment, she considered making use of whatever feeling Allen harbored toward Henry. If she could move Allen, her revenge could be carried out more easily. But to do that, she would have to remove her mask before him.

‘It’s too great a risk.’

Eveline abandoned the thought. At that moment, Allen’s gaze turned toward her. Because their eyes met without any warning, her heartbeat quickened. She had to act with every ounce of strength she had in order not to let that show.

His eyes were so sharp that they seemed as though they would dig into her inner self. She struggled to keep her expression from faltering. Soon he looked away first, but Eveline’s chest did not calm for quite some time.

‘I need to be careful.’

Eveline swallowed dryly at the warning signal running through her mind.